


in your eyes, there is (no) hope for tomorrow

by dykenance (orphan_account)



Series: vld post-s7 fix-its [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Lance (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, M/M, POV Lance (Voltron), Post S7, Sharing a Bed, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 10:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25469443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/dykenance
Summary: “C’mon, I know you don’t want to be stuck with me for eternity, but I know you can put up with one night.”
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: vld post-s7 fix-its [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1844866
Comments: 14
Kudos: 174





	in your eyes, there is (no) hope for tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> title song is 'chiquitita' by abba :-)

Lance feels like he’s pretty much always in a state of shock. One thing after another just barges into his life to surprise him.

There’s the obvious, life-shattering event that comes to mind. One night of shenanigans led to a monumental shift in everything—his family, his friends, and the fate of the entire universe (no pressure).

Today he was positively bewildered when his mother finally agreed to leave his room--she’s slept on an uncomfortable cot since he got back. More than once, he’s woken up to her stroking his face, tears running down her own. All he ever manages in those silent moments is to take her hand and smile before he passes out again.

The most recent surprise is Keith standing in his doorway. This one really throws him for a loop.

Because they haven’t seen each other since the hospital started treatment. They haven’t talked in over a week, and they haven’t  _ really _ talked in what feels like years.

So, left alone, a matter of feet apart, nothing there to break their focus? It sets Lance on edge.

But he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t dying to see the boy.

He’d heard plenty about this honest-to-god leader, this guy who could apparently talk to people without sulking in a corner for twenty minutes afterward.

It makes Lance smile, thinking about how awkward Keith used to be, how much time and trust it took for Keith to be vulnerable with him.

And there, he feels a pang.

He’s missed that.

“Keith?” he says, the first to disrupt the palpable silence between them. “Are you okay?”

Keith considers him, leaning against the doorway. “Yeah, it’s just a quiet night.”

Lance is quick to nod. After years of being on a secluded ship with six other people, it’s hard to acclimate being alone. Especially if, while on said ship, you faced battles and devastating losses that rattle you awake each night—bonus points if you died at some point.

Scratch that--being alone is terrifying.

“Where’s Shiro?”

“I convinced him and Adam to go sleep on a real bed. They suffered some pretty hefty injuries.”

“Hopefully they take that advice literally.”

Keith wrinkles his nose, eyes alight with mirth. “Thanks for that.”

Joining in on some light laughter, Lance asks, “What about your mom?”

“Oh, she and Thorak agreed to have a meeting with Iverson.” At Lance’s eyebrow raise, because there have been  _ several _ meetings throughout the day every day since they got back, Keith continues, “Dunno, but I told her I could go for a night alone, which turned out to be a huge lie.”

“Hmm.” Lance’s smile turns teasing. “So you came to me?”

Keith levels a look at him, but surprisingly doesn’t have a snappy comeback. He really has changed.

“Yes. Can I sleep in here?”

Lance holds a dramatic hand to his chest. “Wow, I thought you’d never ask. Make yourself at home.”

Keith glares and sits himself in one of the chairs next to Lance’s bed. “Hard to make yourself at home he—“

“Woah, hey man, what the hell are you doing?” Lance exclaims, indignation flying across his face.

“Uh. Sitting?”

“Preposterous.” Lance levels a silly look at him. “Dude, c’mon. I’m a worthy cuddle.”

Keith opens and closes his mouth a few times, crossing his arms defensively, until Lance pats his chest and nods encouragingly.

“C’mon, I know you don’t want to be stuck with me for eternity, but I know you can put up with one night.” Then he smiles at the expression on Keith’s face. “Okay, okay, you don’t have to.”

“ _ Lance _ ,” he finally responds, exasperated, “I--shush. Fine.” Keith stands and slowly climbs into the bed, like he’s afraid it’ll collapse. “You know I didn’t mean that.”

There is a quiet, awkward moment where Keith is making the bed creak, shifting his weight until he’s pressed up against Lance’s side, head just short of his shoulder.

Lance doesn’t want to say he likes it, but he’s comfortable, to say the least (and he hopes to every deity out there that Keith doesn’t notice the accelerating pounding of his heart). He’s currently battling a smile—so maybe he likes having their badass leader snuggled into his side. Sue him.

“Did you just ‘shush’ me, by the way?”

“What? No.”

“Wow, dude. You’ve softened.”

Keith smacks his arm weakly. “No, I have not. Now,  _ shush _ .”

With a hidden grin, Lance snakes an arm under Keith’s, holding his waist. “Haven’t lost your sense of humor.”

He can feel the boy suck in a deep breath, slowly exhale. The proximity is…odd. Nothing they haven’t experienced before, pressed up together in a cold-blooded mission, sharing the space where they could potentially die. A quick glance and a nod, one that reassures each of them that they could do it—they had to—and then they’d be off, carrying the plan out.

This, though, is different. Nobody is forcing them to share this. No one is ordering them to have each other’s backs.

They choose to.

“Nope, I’m still the funniest guy alive. Consider yourself lucky.”

“Oh, always.”

The two lay in silence for a while. Lance is all too aware of Keith’s fingers slowly curling into his shirt, a mere layer from his bare chest.

For a while, the only sound in the room is them breathing.

For a while, Lance succumbs to drowsiness, obsessing himself with the way Keith seems to be winding into him, gripping his abdomen as he lets himself relax.

And for a while, it’s enough to let him fall into the embrace of sleep.

When he breaks back into consciousness, everything from his last mission comes catapulting forward; all of the claustrophobic loneliness is gripping at his throat, and he’s struggling to breathe, moaning as he sits up. He reaches in the dark for his mom’s hand, tears spilling over his eyes when he can’t find her warm touch. 

She isn’t there. 

She never was. 

Gasps fall from his mouth as he tries to pull himself out of his cramped room on the ship to find water, or just take a walk, anything to get out of the suffocating space.

And he lets out a strangled noise when he hears a, “Lance?” from his side.

“Huh?”

A light flicks on, highlighting the concern on Keith’s narrow face. It’s all a little foggy, and Lance struggles to think of why the boy would be with him. “Lance. Can you hear me? Do you know where you are?”

“M-my room.” His next breath rattles through his chest. “The ship? Why are you in my room?”

Keith shakes his head and takes Lance’s hand, a lifesaver in his muddled state of mind, where time is still then slow then accelerating, rocking him around till he feels seasick. “No. We’re in a hospital, back on Earth. We’re not fighting anymore.”

Brief memories spill across Lance’s mind like an old film reel, and his eyes look back and forth between Keith’s. Open, kind, grey.  _ Grey, grey, grey _ .

Before he can let himself fall too far, he shakes his head. He can’t let his guard down. That got him into deep shit one too many times. “It’s not real, Keith.” Slowly, he lowers his eyes. “ _ You’re _ not real.”

The imaginary boy furrows his brow. “This  _ is _ real, Lance. You just had a bad dream. I get them too. But you woke up, and you’re okay.”

Lance laughs, and it reverberates in his chest cavity, his eyes wide and wild. “No. These walls will come down any minute now, and, and you and I will be stuck on that stupid game show. I fucking hated that show. And--and we’ll be begging Bob to leave. Begging and begging to be released when it’s too late to save them anyway…” He gulps. “This war will never be over. It isn’t real.”

He squeezes his eyes shut, grappling with the sharp back-and-forths of his thoughts, the reals and not reals twisted together in one giant hellscape.

It’s not until he feels soft, cool skin under his hand that he reopens them. When he does, he sees Keith holding Lance’s palm against his cheek.

“I’m real, Lance.” Lance blinks slowly, taking in the sight of the boy illuminated by moonlight and a shitty lamp. Tentatively, Keith reaches out a cool, calloused hand and strokes tears away from Lance’s cheek--he didn’t even realize he was still crying, and the gesture pathetically makes him want to even more. “You are, too. Can you feel me?”

Lance nods, frozen otherwise under the boy’s touch. He might usually be jumpy at a random touch in this state, but it’s nice to have something to focus on.  _ Someone _ . 

“As long as you can feel me, this is real. It’s not going away.”

In a moment of vulnerability, Lance catches Keith’s hand, links their fingers, and presses it against his own cheek. The boy’s eyes are on him, open and calm, his cheek squished against Lance’s chest.

“Thank you.”

Keith smiles, a buttery warm smile, and what he says next comes out gentle. “Try to get some sleep, soldier. I’ll still be here.”

And he keeps his hand rested against Lance’s cheek.

When Lance wakes up in the morning, it takes a while for his vision to shift from a blurry swirl of colors to focused. He immediately becomes aware of extra weight against his side, but it’s soothing. Warm. Human.

He trails his eyes downward. Keith’s strong features are so delicate in rest; his eyelashes brush against his cheeks, which are chubby against Lance’s chest. His nose slopes downward, nostrils flaring slightly with each breath (can nostrils be cute?). Soft, reddish lips occasionally whistle on an exhale, causing small flyaway hairs to flutter.

Without hesitation, Lance moves to brush the hair back from Keith’s forehead, an involuntary smile working its way onto his face. 

He had a rough night, for sure, but he knows Keith has had a similar pattern of restless sleep for a long time. They used to catch each other getting up for water or a midnight snack a  _ lot _ (and for much different reasons back then), and coupled with the shouting he used to hear from Keith’s room at night, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. To have him safe, sleeping soundly for once in his arms...it’s everything.

He’s scared, and the contact has his stomach twisting, but Lance allows his uncertain fingers to trail gently along the edges of Keith’s face, getting swallowed up in the time, several thousand fireflies buzzing around under his skin.

Just as Lance is losing himself in the curve of Keith’s eyebrow, the boy’s face contorts into consciousness. Lance yanks his hand back as Keith starts blinking and wiping his eyes harshly, getting the sleep out of his eyes.

In an indecently raspy voice, Keith says, “Lance?” And the fireflies are begging him to say it again and again.

He’s lucky to form a thought, let alone a sentence. “Morning, Samurai. Enjoying the view?”  _ Not bad, Lance. _

The pause has Lance feeling like he’s flying down the hill of a rollercoaster. Keith stretches and rolls off of his chest. “It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen.”

“Eyes are working then, that’s good.” He smiles cheekily, earning an exasperated look from Keith.

While the boy is sitting up, running his hand through tousled hair, he says, “I don’t think I gave you any reason to believe otherwise.”

“Well, considering your previous refusal to admit any attraction to me, I had to won--”

Before he can finish his thought, they hear a shout of, “Keith!” Both boys snap their heads in the direction of the door, where Lance sees Shiro with Adam. Shiro has a funny expression as he looks between them, while Adam waves gaily.

Keith scrambles from the bed, and Lance decides it’s the least coordinated he’s ever seen him doing anything, and he kind of can’t wait to tease him later about it.

“Hi Shiro! It’s been a while,” he says to fill up the silence. “Cool to see you again, Adam. You guys having a good morning?”

Shiro grins, an air of sheer amusement surrounding him. “Oh, it’s really great.” He raises an eyebrow at Keith. “We were gonna take Keith down to breakfast, but didn’t find him in his room. Should’ve known to check here next, huh?”

It’s hard to put a word on the energy travelling between the brothers at this moment, but Lance preoccupies himself with what Shiro said, turning the words around and around in his mind till he has to look out the window to distract himself so he doesn’t give way to a dopey smile.

“Well--are we going or what?” Keith finally says, something like guilt plastered all over his face.

“Mhm,” Adam chimes in. He links Shiro’s hand back in his own. “Nice to see you, Lance. We’ll catch you later.”

Lance waves. “See you later.” He glances to Keith, who looks like his own skin is holding captive on this unfortunate planet, and decides to wave again, a smaller gesture this time. “Bye, Keith.”

The boy rolls his eyes.

Back to normal.

**Author's Note:**

> howdy! I have not watched, read about, or participated in anything relating to Voltron in like two years lmao but im going through all my wips and thought this had potential :-) its sort of a continuation of the post s7 fic I wrote called 'your love's a blown out candle', so go read that if you'd like! I at least believe this is post s7, that's what I titled it in my drafts haha, I don’t remember many exact details. however, I hope that someone finds this and enjoys it! 
> 
> please let me know in the comments if you do, as I have a bit of a follow-up/ending started for this, and if enough people actually did enjoy it, I would consider fixing that up and posting it. I also just love reading any and all comments that people leave for me, no matter how short or long, so yeah! I hope you enjoyed this, ily all, and have a good day/night <3


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